” On Monday January 13, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a major case testing the scope of presidential power.

What is surprising, however, is that Obama has also received strong support from a leading liberal organization, the Constitutional Accountability Center, a Washington think tank and law firm “dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of our Constitution’s text and history.”

According to a friend of the court brief submitted by the Constitutional Accountability Center on behalf of the federal government in Noel Canning, “crabbed and erroneous interpretations of the Recess Appointments Clause would undermine the scope of a presidential power that is fundamental to the proper operation of the federal government: the President’s ability to make temporary appointments to Executive and Judicial Branch offices when the Senate is unavailable to provide its advice and consent.”

That view is surprising because it stands in such marked contrast to previous progressive interpretations of the Recess Appointments Clause, most notably that of Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. In 2003, Kennedy filed his own friend of the court brief when the federal courts heard a similar case dealing with President Bush’s purported recess appointment of William H. Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, an appointment which Bush made while the Senate was on an intra-session break, not while it was in recess.”

” National Labor Relations Board lawyers okayed a major union’s practice of paying people to protest against Walmart in a legal memorandum earlier this month. The federal labor law enforcement agency said the practice of paying workers $50 apiece to join protests “did not constitute unlawful … coercion of employees.”

In a Nov. 15 memorandum from the NLRB’s general counsel office regarding the so-called “Black Friday” protests staged by United Food and Commercial Workers against the nonunion retailer last year, the NLRB lawyers determined that the UFCW’s offer of $50 gift cards to anyone who showed up to protest “was a non-excessive strike benefit.”

The lawyers said there was “no evidence to indicate that the gift card was meant to buy support for OUR Walmart” since the card was available not just to the retailer’s employees but to anyone who showed up at the unions’ protests.”

As usual the astroturf party has to bribe their minions to get them to show up .

” What the protests seem to be largely lacking, though, are actual Walmart employees. At events across the country last year, local media struggled to find anyone on the picket lines who also worked at the store. Some events had none at all.”

” The Supreme Court on Monday waded into a major constitutional clash between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans that could fundamentally limit a president’s use of recess appointments to fill high-level administration posts.

The justices will review a federal appeals court ruling that found Obama overstepped his authority when he bypassed the Senate last year to fill three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board.

At issue for the Supreme Court: What constitutes a congressional recess and does it matter when a vacancy occurs?

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., held earlier this year that recess appointments can be made only during the once-a-year break between sessions of Congress. Two judges on the panel also ruled — for the first time — that a vacancy must occur while the Senate is away in order to be filled during the same break.”

” She grappled with trying to bolster the U.S. workforce at a time of fiscal crisis and recovery from recession. “There is still much to do, but we are well on the road to recovery, and middle-class Americans know the president is on their side,” she said.

Obama, in a statement, called her a “tireless champion for working families.”

So far, Obama has picked white males for the three biggest Cabinet positions – Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and former Senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. He was due to announce Jack Lew as treasury secretary on Thursday, a source said.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a close confidante of Obama, withdrew her name last month from consideration for the secretary of state post in the face of what promised to be a contentious Senate confirmation battle. ”

” The National Labor Relations Board unleashed a raft of precedent-busting, pro-union decisions soon after President Barack Obama’s reelection in November.

The board’s three Democratic appointees issued rulings that weakened checks on union power, including two high-profile decisions forcing employers to automatically deduct union dues from worker paychecks when contract agreements expire and limiting the ability of employees to exercise theirBeck rights.

“The board is an inherently political institution because it is made up of political appointees,” the Center for Union Facts’ managing director J. Justin Wilson said. “They are constantly overruling themselves. Unlike the Supreme Court, they do not like to overrule existing precedent.” ”

” An Oklahoma local of the Teamsters Union is disputing recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), charging that recess appointments were made while the U.S. Senate was not in recess, according to legal documents obtained by The Daily Caller.

“The union disputes that the board is properly and sufficiently constituted, as ‘recess’ appointments (to NLRB) were made when there was no recess,” according to a Dec. 12, 2012 affidavit signed by Teamsters Local 523 President Gary Ketchum. “

Note That This Involves Recess Appointments Made By The Previous Occupant Of The Oval Office. This All Predates Obama And His Recess Appointments But It Is Instructive All The Same As It Highlights A Little Known Fact Of Union Life …. Seniority

“The guy worked at a company that did not have a collective bargaining agreement. This company was bought by a union company, and he didn’t want to belong to the union,” Ketchum told TheDC.

As part of the merger, Rammage was placed at the bottom of the seniority list for the merged unit, while other Dolly Madison employees previously represented by Teamsters Local 523 were placed higher than Rammage on the seniority list.

Interstate Bakeries told Rammage that he lost his seniority because he was not represented by a union.

“All of a sudden he wants to be dovetailed in?” Ketchum told TheDC. “That’s what they’re trying to force now. They’re trying to say that his seniority should be pushed up based on his time with the company ( well DUH ) , ahead of those who were union workers. That’s wrong. His seniority should start back at the bottom.”

Due to his low seniority, Rammage was transferred from his Ponca City facility to a different facility approximately 70 miles from his home, forcing him to move. ”

seniority

status, priority, or precedence achieved by length of service, as in a given job

This puts the Obama administration in an awkward spot . Who’s recess appointments are valid and who’s are not ? Why or why not ? Side with Bush or side with the unions ? Or , and this really isn’t an option in the Obama playbook , admit that both could be wrong ?

In an 18-page memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg struck the regulation down, saying the labor board only had two members when it voted on the final rule in December 2011. Boasberg said the agency needed at least three members to have a quorum for action on the rule.”

Some rarely exhibited common sense has prevailed , although one must note that the judge’s ruling was based on a technicality and not on the merits of the rule enacted by NLRB . All the more reason for a change of administration . It’s time for people that actually contribute to the GDP to have some say in the rules .

“Cause of Action, a nonpartisan group that seeks more transparency in government, recently discovered e-mails through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that show linkages between top National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) executives and ACORN, the liberal community organizing group Andrew Breitbart helped expose and eventually put out of business.”